Many modern cars now have pushbutton start. Leave the key fob in our pocket, touch the button on the dash, and the engine is engaged.
We have to push the right buttons on the microwave, or we’ll never enjoy our popcorn.
How about that TV remote? Don’t like the program? Just push a button. The garage door won’t open unless we press with our finger; doorbells won’t ring; telephones won’t answer; even our e-readers. Pushing the right buttons will get us everything.
Sometimes pushing the wrong buttons gets us things we don’t want. Proverbs 30:33 tells us:
“For pressing milk produces curds, pressing the nose produces blood, and pressing anger produces strife.”
Curds make cheese and butter. We want that. A bloody nose? Maybe not so much. And strife leads to high blood pressure, heart attacks, and eventual death. Who wants to go there?
Let’s see what else the book of Proverbs has to say about the buttons we push.
Proverbs 20:3 says we’re fools if we push the button of strife:
“It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling.”
Proverbs 29:22 reveals our anger button as the source of strife:
“A man of wrath stirs up strife, and one given to anger causes much transgression.”
Proverbs 26:20-21 suggests we simply need to push the shut up button sometimes:
“For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases. As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.”
Proverbs 17:1 encourages us not to trade our spiritual well-being for the buttons of the world:
“Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.”
Proverbs 17:14 shows us it’s better to hit the quit button while we’re ahead:
“The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out.”
Proverbs 22:10 is our button that makes it clear we shouldn’t tolerate a person who encourages strife:
“Drive out a scoffer, and strife will go out, and quarreling and abuse will cease.”
Proverbs 18:6 adds visual imagery to illustrate how our words are buttons that can betray us:
“A fool's lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating.”
Proverbs 15:18 paints a picture of a button God wants us to push:
“A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.”
After a quarrel has escalated and been diffused, we’ve heard people say, “He knows just which buttons to push.” We can elicit a positive response from people in the same way, once we learn the right buttons to push.
1 Peter 3:8-9 tells us exactly how it’s done:
“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”
When we push the buttons of love, understanding, and caring for others, those at our side will see the actions of Christ in everything we do.
Copyright © 2016 MyChurchNotes.net
Code: FGO.A.20.16.vp.esv